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OUR DECEMBER 20th EVENT WILL CELEBRATE ANIMATION AS A GREAT ART FORM. ENJOY A SCREENING OF RARELY SEEN WORKS (all will be shown on film - no video) Prescott Wright, who organized 18 editions of the Tournee of Animation, has gone through his film vaults and has selected several wonderful works to share with us.
The program will feature Hunger (Oscar momination,.1974), Visages (c. 1972), and Metadata (1970) three rare films by Peter Foldes (Hungary/UK). His figurative computer animation attracted worldwide attention when it was made. Unfortunately his career was cut short by cancer (late 70's) and his pioneering work is largely forgotten today.
Also in the program are Norman McLaren's Pas De Deux, Paul Driesen's An Old Box, Seth Olitzky's Ballet Frenetic, Steve Segal's Red Ball Express, and several other outstanding works. The event will be at the Exploratorium, Wed. Dec. 20 at 7:30 p.m. It is free and the public is invited.
PIXAR RELEASES A FEW DETAILS ABOUT THEIR 5TH FEATURE FOR DISNEY Finding Nemo will be an underwater adventure starring fishes. The story is a father's search for his kidnapped son (a clownfish). Andrew Stanton wrote the original story and Stanton and David Silverman will direct. It will be released Summer, 2003 (past Pixar features were released in November).
PIXAR'S 'TOY STORY 2' WINS LOTS OF ANNIE AWARDS AND THEIR 'FOR THE BIRDS' WINS THE BEST SHORT AWARD Toy Story 2 was voted the best animated feature. Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon and John Lasseter got the best director award and Joe Ranft and Dan Jeup got the best storyboard award. Toy Story 2 also won awards for best male voice actor, best female voice actor, best writing and best music.
Among the other awards winners were Elmo Aardvark as best designed Internet production and Courage the Cowardly Dog (directed by John Dillworth) as best designed TV production.
Pixar's For the Birds looks like a serious Oscar contender. It has already won several major festival prizes. In November it not only won an Annie, it also won the best animated short at England's Leaf Awards.
IMAX CANCELS PLANS TO RELEASE "SHREK" according to a news story on AWN (Nov. 13). The feature will come out in 35mm on May 18, 2001. An IMAX version in 3D and with several different scenes was going to be released about 6 months later.
This development is a real shame as much of the conversion from 35mm to 70mm was finished. Also, it would have been a chance for IMAX to release something with real content. While they have a fantastic film delivery system, the films made for it tend to be lightweight eye-candy.
I suspect the company leadership is better at understanding technology than content. Animation looks great on their big screens and Disney proved it could be profitable (Fantasia 2000 grossed about $49 million in 75 IMAX theaters before it was released in 35mm). Is IMAX afraid to commit itself to a better quality product? Are they simply going to remain a novelty industry?
AWN didn't state why the film was canceled except to note IMAX may be hurting from a recent drop in their stock's value (it dropped over 70% from over $30 to under $5). Hopefully Shrek will do well in 35mm and IMAX will revise the project.
One possible reason for IMAX backing out of the project is Cyberworld not being a smash hit. It cost "under $10 million." After showing it 6 weeks on 33 screens it has grossed $2.2 million. It was ranked #19 the 6th week.
XAOS DOES A GOTHIC "ALICE" They recently completed 1.5 minutes of computer animation for a two minute "trailer" that will be used by Electronic Arts to promote Alice, their new game, at trade shows. Xaos did a lot of character animation in the trailer. Unlike Lewis Carol's Alice, their female is a psychotic, knife wielding Goth who lives in a nasty Wonderland. The ad is Xaos' most complex demonstration of their new character animation capabilities. Adam Gravois was their creative director and Little Beast was the production company that produced the promotion
LUCAS ONLINE AND ATOM FILM TO LAUNCH STAR WARS FILM NET They are looking for Star Wars parodies by fans. Royalties will be paid for work used.
PLAN TO SHOW YOUR WORK AT OUR NEXT OPEN SCREENINGS, THURS. JANUARY 25 FOR INDEPENDENT AND STUDENT WORKS AND WED. FEB. 21 FOR WORK BY PROFESSIONAL STUDIOS Everybody is welcome to show up with a reel. No forms, fees, or reservations needed. You don't need to be an ASIFA member. If you do not have a reel, be part of the audience. Exploratorium, McBean Theater, 7:30, free.
WILL WILD BRAIN'S GIANT BABY PULVERIZE THE RUGRATS??? The studio has gone into production on 26 half-hour episodes of Mr. Baby, a series created by Phil Robinson. EM.TV of Germany is the co-producer. EM.TV also co-produced Poochini, Wild Brain's first animated series.
Mr. Baby, who is constantly at odds with his nemesis Mr. Smarty, is an average guy trying to make it in this world. The catch is Mr. Baby is a 15 foot tall, diaper wearing child who has to hold down a job. This wacky screwball concept came from the fertile imagination of Phil Robinson, a partner in the company. Robinson directed the feature Ferngully 2 and the 2D animation in two features for Universal, Dudley Do-Right and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. He is presently directing a short film at Wild Brain. Since he has become busy with other projects, Gary Conrad, a well seasoned director of kid's TV animation, has been appointed director of the series.
WILD BRAIN.COM SYNDICATES "SPACE IS DUM" This popular web series has been picked up by SciFi.Com.
"ANIMATION STUDIO FOR KIDS" DESIGNED BY GENE HAMM, IS NOW ON SALE AT YOUR FAVORITE TOY STORE Local animator and animation teacher Gene Hamm has created the Junior Cartoonist & Animation Studio for the Da Mert Toy Company. The kit is part of Da Mert's Career Kids series including Hollywood Costume Designer, and Future Car Designer. With the kit you can, "draw like a professional cartoonist and create cartoon strips, flipbooks and zoetrope strips. Everything you need, including desktop, tracing, underlays, templates, pencils, paper, an animation zoetrope and a 28 page drawing guide are stored in a handy portable briefcase." Gene is especially proud of the 28 page booklet that is crammed with useful tips, such as demystifying walks and making a bird fly. It is available at quality toy stores and art supply stores such as FAO Schwartz, Michael's Art Supply and Early Work Parent Teacher Store in Petaluma.
THE PFA SCREENED SOME OF THE NEW TOP INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL CONTENDERS IN THEIR NOV. OTTAWA PROGRAMS Michel Dudok Wit's Father and Daughter was described as being an outstanding work by several people. It just won the grand prize at Cinanima 2000 in Espinho, Portugal. The Periwig Maker by Steffan Schaffler, also shown at the PFA, won Cinanima's best European production award. It won a special jury prize at Hiroshima.
MEMBERS DIDN'T RESPOND TO A REQUEST FOR COMMENTS ABOUT THE NEW SICK AND TWISTED SHOW Perhaps the silence is meaningful.
STREAMING MEDIA WEST 2000 at the San Jose Convention Center, Dec. 12-14. For details www.streamingmedia.com/west (888) 301-8899
MEET SOME OF THE VOLUNTEERS WHO MAKE ASIFA-SF AN EXCITING ASSOCIATION I assume most people know that Karl Cohen, our chapter president, is the writer of this newsletter, an animation historian, etc., but I suspect that
other volunteers that keep ASIFA going are less well known.
Prescott Wright is one of the founders of ASIFA-SF, a past chapter president, an animation educator, the curator and distributor of 18 editions of the Tournee of Animation and a former employee of Disney and several other studios. He was on the ASIFA-International board for 8 years. He has written numerous articles for our newsletter and other publications and has organized many programs for our chapter. This amazing spirit has helped guide our chapter through many years of growth. His words of advise have helped keep us together while other organizations have fallen by the wayside.
Marty McNamara teaches full-time at DeAnza and extension classes at SF State. He is a past president of ASIFA-SF and a former ASIFA-International board member. He has been active with us for well over 25 years. Each year he organizes a few exceptional programs. In 2000 he organized and presented an evening with Alexander Petrov (he won the animation Oscar this year for Old Man and the Sea), a behind-the-scenes program on stop-motion animation and an evening with an animator from Iran. Some of my favorite memories of past events that he organized are meetings with some of Disney's Nine Old Men, hearing Zack Schwartz talk about being an art director on the Sorcerer's Apprentice and meeting some of Canada's greatest animators.
Shirley Smith is a talented independent animator (Dunderdeck's Machine and other shorts) who kept our financial records organized for many years. Her annual business reports were creative artistic efforts that probably wouldn't have been approved of by Dunn and Brad Street. She remains active with ASIFA behind-the-scenes. She takes charge of the many tasks required to get the newsletter to you on time and has helped out in many other ways. We look forward to seeing her next film - presently being animated.
Ron Seawright has been a spirit behind the educational programs we held in recent months (storyboarding and other topics). He shows up monthly to help mail out the newsletter and to provide good ideas and guidance. He grew up in LA where he watched the animation/special effects business develop. Roy, his father, was nominated twice for special effects Oscars (Topper, 1937, Hal Roach Studio and One Million Years B.C., 1966). When the major studios downsized, Roy became a partner in Cascade, one of the first independent special effects/stop-motion studios. Ron has worked for several local animation companies and teaches at the Academy of Art.
Seth Olitzky has both a Masters Degree in Computer Science and an MFA in film animation, both from UCLA. He developed what were once cutting-edge
2D programs and he used them to create a series of
outstanding experimental animated art films in the 1980's and 90's. Back in the 1980's he took over our mailing list system and put it on a computer.
For many years he has been updating that file and printing out our monthly supply of mailing
labels. Another of Olitzky's contributions to ASIFA has been his organizing several programs including the standing-room-only screening we had of abstract animation last July. He recently retired from keeping our database so he can concentrate on other activities. Much thanks for your many years of help and support.
John Grimes is a professional newspaper, book, web and magazine cartoonist/illustrator who loves animation. (grimescartoons.com) He recently took on the task of developing the content of our web site. He also has taken on the responsibility of keeping it up-to-date and seeing that other web sites know who we are and what we are doing. What he and Becky Wells, our web site's graphic designer, do not know is that several people from other ASIFA chapters (including a Disney producer, a noted animation scholar, and others) have called recently and have praised the quality of their work. On behalf of all our members and anybody else who wants to find correct information on the web, much thanks for your contributions to the world of animation.
Becky Wells designed the visual appearance of our web site. Log on to www.asifa-sf.org and admire her abilities as a graphic designer. By day she works as an art director for a non-profit organization. We are very fortunate that she has shared some of her spare time and Internet expertise with us. Although she continues to update the site, she would like to find a volunteer who knows Dream Weaver who can help her and eventually take over management of the site. (Call Karl Cohen at {415} 386-1004 if you can help).
Tara Packard is an animator with a fine arts background who had a long career working on video games before switching recently to Internet projects. She deposits our membership checks and keeps our bank account in order. She also makes our newsletter mailing parties lively affairs. She will deliver her first annual financial report in January before our open screening.
Philip Malkin is our new volunteer in charge of our mailing list. He is an independent interactive media producer who has been coming to our events for years. He says he is quit appreciative of our love and dedication to animation.
Pete Davis works as a video game animator. He has been volunteering as a proofreader of the newsletter for several years. Unfortunately there is rarely enough time to send him hard copy so he can make the needed corrections. Thanks to his occasional help the number of errors have become fewer over the years. Now that I have e-mail he will be the first person to read our newsletter.
Liz Keim of the Exploratorium staff is the reason we hold so many of our events there. She has not only been a great friend of animation, she also has done a great deal to help other independent film artists working in a wide range of mediums and styles. She fell in love with film when she studied with independent filmmaker Robert Frank and Edith Kramer at UC Davis in the 1970's. She has been in charge of the Exploratorium's film program since the 1980's. She puts in long hours and rarely gets the thanks she deserves. Liz, ASIFA-SF thanks you and appreciates all that you have done for us and other individuals and groups.
There are many others who have helped keep ASIFA-SF going and growing. They have done a wide range of things from helping organize events to providing information and/or help with the newsletter. They include Barbara Bannerman-Olitzky, Bonnie Barouki, Tony Claar, Richard Delaney, Bridget Erdmann, Marilyn Fredman, Gene Hamm, John Hays, Heather Kenyon of AWN, Chris Lanier, Gary Meyer, Russell Merritt, Jeff Nevins, Nancy Phelps, Jeff Pheno, Gustavo Ramierez, Phil Robinson, Steve Segal, Linda Simensky, Suzy Starke, Carter Tomassi, Nagisa Yamamoto and two dozen other people. There are also 3 out-of-town members, Jerry Beck, Marcy Page and Bill Plympton, who contribute to our newsletter and/or our programs each year. ASIFA thanks all of you along with your loved ones, friends and roommates who put up with us while we pursue our love of animation.
NINA PALEY APPEARANCE ON NATIONAL TV TO BE SHOWN AT ATA You may know Nina Paley as an animator and cartoonist. But did you know she guest-starred on the 1997 "I Want To Join A Suicide Cult" episode of the Jerry Springer Show? You might not recognize her as she wore a wig and makeup, went under an assumed name, and advocated sodomy and cannibalism on national TV! You can see this strange moment from TV history along with a selection of her animated shorts and a display of her original comic art work (Nina's Adventures, Fluff, Grateful Dead Comix) at the ATA Gallery on Thursday, November 30 and Friday, December 1 at 8:00 pm. Artists Television Access, 992 Valencia (@21st) SF. Q&A session after the show.
Caution: may not be appropriate for young children or their parents.
note: This item (based on her press release) is included even though the newsletter may not be out in time for you to attend the event. The item is unusual and Paley is becoming well known, so we thought you might find information about this performance piece of interest.
ERROR IN NOV. ARTICLE IN THE NEWSLETTER ABOUT BAY AREA ANIMATION COMPANIES It said that the CD-ROM companies purchased by Mattel had been closed and any assets were being sold. That item came from a former Broderbund employee. Apparently what was said may be true about Broderbund, but Fox Hughes called and said he is doing illustration work for what is left of The Learning Company. He reports they now have a very small staff. It was once a large company.
IS BILL PLYMPTON A SEXY DISNEY? At the Hiroshima Animation Festival he gave Sun-Young Joung, a writer for Animatoon (a slick Korean magazine), an informative interview about his work. When asked about Mutant Aliens, his next feature, to be released next
year, he said the idea of the story came to him when he saw a picture of a dog named Laika that the Soviet Union sent into space. The dog and several other animals were eventually abandoned in space. "So my story is these animals are angry and and come back to earth to seek revenge."
When asked why there is so much emphasis on sex in his work he replied, "I like sex humor. I would do sexy drawings in high school and friends liked them. When I moved to New York I drew sexy drawings and sex cartoons for Playboy and other men's magazines. When I started animation it was natural for me to do sexy animation. My parents don't want me to make sexy films. They want me to make cute films (smile). But I said to them, 'That's not me.' My humor is visual and universal."
The final question in the interview was, "You said in Q&A session you want to be Disney. What do you mean by that?" He replied, "Yes (smile), I want to be a sexy Disney in feature films. I want my films to be played in all over the world. I am a populist." Note: the magazine is full of grammatical errors and other mistakes. Many have been corrected, but I left the last part alone as I have no idea what he was trying to say.
BILL PLYMPTON SAYS "WEEK WITH THE MASTERS" IN INDIA WAS A GREAT EXPERIENCE AND HE EXPLAINED WHY HE IS A "SEXY DISNEY" He has been to dozens of festivals over the years so I believe him when he says the event in India was a really wonderful, exotic experience. He enjoyed being on a panel discussing adult animation. The event was well run and he loved staying at a nice hotel on the beach. (He snorkeled in the Indian Ocean before breakfast and enjoyed watching fishermen bring in their nets.) He said Toonz India spared no expense. They rode in limos and on the backs of elephants. He enjoyed the food and he didn't get sick.
As for the quote from the Korean magazine, he said he wants his animation to be enjoyed by the masses, not by just an "artsy fartsy" crowd. Plympton noted that Disney and Frank Capra shared similar feelings about their work. As for his being sexy, he told me he and the American public love "sex and violence" so I guess he means they love sexual content (and his films deliver lots of it). I
had assumed he was saying he was sexy. Bill Plympton
ASIFA-EAST HONORED YURI NORSTEIN on Halloween with a screening at the School of Visual Arts before everybody celebrated and wandered off into the night. He showed his work-in-progress on The Overcoat plus Tale of Tales and other work.
ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD SCREENED ANNIE NOMINATED WORKS IN OCTOBER The program on video included work in 5 categories: TV commercials, short subjects, 'special projects', feature character animation and special effects for features. The shorts were For the Birds, Pixar; Quick Draw El Kabong, Wild Brain; John Henry, Disney; Little Go Beep, Warner Bros. and Ghost of Stephen Foster by Matthew Nastuk and Raymond Persi. The Annie ceremony was in mid-November. Some of the winners are mentioned on page one.
J.J. SEDELMAIER DID THE GODZILLA INSPIRED PROMO ON ABC It promotes 3 network shows: Spin City, Drew Carey Show & Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
RENEGADE TO DO CEL QUALITY ADS ON THE INTERNET The Burbank animation studio does TV commercials and the good looking series Elmo Aardvark. Now they have a contract to do a series of entertaining 90 second "cel-style" ads that parody dot.com culture and promote Bulk Register.com.
DID DISNEY MAKE A SERIOUS BLUNDER WHEN THEY DECIDED TO STAR A LOVABLE BLUE EYED DALMATIAN IN THEIR NEW FEATURE? Nancy Phelps with the Sprockets Ensemble has owned several Dalmatians including one with blue eyes. She reports that blue eyed Dalmatian pups are normally put to sleep at birth as the eye color indicates they most likely were born deaf. She found out about this problem after she got a blue eyed Dalmatian from somebody who told her the dog was stupid. It refused to pay attention to voice commands.
When posters for Disney's 102 Dalmatians appeared featuring a cute blue eyed dog, she called saying she feared lots of kids will want a blue eyed one for Christmas. Deaf dogs require special care and attention.
Dalmatians are not toys that can be put aside and forgotten once the novelty of owning one wears off. That happened after the last Dalmatian feature came out, so Disney included a warning to parents in the video release. Will Disney have one about blue eyed Dalmatians? Do the warnings really work? Will Disney's public relations staff handle this potential problem well? Did I hear you answer "no" to all 3 questions?
CLASSIC MEDIA DECIDES NOT TO COMPLETE IT'S DEAL TO BUY HARVEY Why would somebody want to own all of those 2nd rate cartoons anyway?
"MR. BEAN" TO BECOME AN ANIMATED TV SERIES Varga in Hungary has been awarded the contract to do 52 episodes. Each will be 11 minutes long. Rowan Atkinson's voice will be used for Mr. Bean's grunts. He will also be a consultant on the production.
BRITISH BROADCASTING MINISTER ORDERS TV TO CUT BACK ON "TRASHY CARTOONS" Minister Janet Anderson is upset about the flooding of the airwaves with violence and other unsuitable material. She cited Pokemon, Transformers and Power Rangers as examples of "trashy television." She wants more "high quality educational shows" for kids on the air.
PSYCHIC URI GELLER SUES NINTENDO for unauthor-ized use of his name on Pokemon cards and related items. The Geller cards have a bent spoon on them, a reference to the famous psychic. He says, "Nintendo has turned me into an evil, occult Pokemon character." On the card Geller wears lightning bolts on his costume, symbols once worn by Nazi SS soldiers.
CINAR HAS RECOVERED $50.2 MILLION OF THE MISSING $122 and all but $12 million is now accounted for. The missing money was supposedly returned to Cinar a year ago by an investment firm in the Bahamas, but for some reason... Cinar has a new CFO and hopes to continue in business once this mess is resolved. The missing money was invested without the consent of the board of this Canadian animation studio.
SAN DIEGO COMIC CON isn't until next July 19-22, but their publicity has already begun. For details Box 128458, San Diego, CA 92112-8458 www.comic-con.org
They also produce APE 2001, Alternate Press Expo in San Francisco, Feb. 17-18, 2001, Ft. Mason.
NEW WHOLE TOON CATALOG HAS LOTS OF NEW ITEMS FOR SALE (BOOKS, TAPES & DVDs) The new items include a wide range of material from Masters of Russian Animation on DVD ($24.99) to a strange book called Weird But True Toon Factoids by Craig Yoe (for $5.98). Whole Toon sells the old Expanded Cinema line of tapes, animation from the National Film Board, cartoons from all the US studios (even Hubley & Iwerks), etc. This is a great catalog of hard to find items. For a free copy (800) 331-6197
If you are looking for gift ideas, you might also check the online store at www.awn.com and the giant animation sections (books and tapes) at Amazon.com.
ASIFA-SAN FRANCISCO
BOX 14516
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114
Thursday and Friday, Nov. 30 - Dec. 1, NINA PALEY SCREENING & GALLERY DISPLAY at ATA, 992 Valencia in SF. See article for details (p.3 above "employment" section).
Wednesday, December 20, at 7:30 p.m. ASIFA-SF PRESENTS WONDERFUL ANIMATED CLASSICS THAT CELEBRATE ANIMATION AS A GREAT FORM OF VISUAL EXPRESSION. at the Exploratorium. See our event flyer for details.
Wed. Dec. 27 at 7:30 & 9:30, SPROCKETS PRESENTS IDEAS IN ANIMATION, "lots of Christmas bon bons and possibly a naughty Santa" says Nancy Phelps. At 21 Grand in Oakland.
34TH HOUSTON INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL has an early deadline of Dec. 15 and a final date of Jan. 15. They give out lots of awards in dozens of categories. If you need another award on your resume... For details and entry form (713) 965-9955 www.worldfest.org
HUMBOLDT FILM FESTIVAL deadline is Jan. 26 for video and Feb. 23 for films. Shows experimental and traditional animation. $30 entry fee, some cash prizes. Humboldt State Univ. Theater Arts Dept., Arcata CA 95521 (707) 826-4113
YOUR NEWSLETTER ADDRESS LABEL NOW SAYS WHEN YOUR MEMBERSHIP EXPIRES Just in case you are curious, Philip Malkin, who manages our database, has added the expiration date in small print. All memberships expire either in December or at the end of June. Memberships about to expire are marked 12/31/00.
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This issue was written by Karl Cohen and proofread by Pete Davis. The production crew included Shirley Smith, Tara Packard and Ron Seawright. Subscriptions are $18 a year. |
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Membership/subscription is $18 a year or $40 for both local and international membership. |
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